"The primary premise of CHICAGO is that the world of crooked lawyers and a public who craves violence is as frightening in its own way as the crimes themselves. Bob Fosse, composer John Kander, and Fred Ebb created a show with an attitude that never softened. Unlike other musicals about show business, this one never tempers its cynicism with compassion. CHICAGO breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the audience, because the entire show is written as vaudeville acts, so the audience becomes a part of the show. In fact, the more we enjoy the show, the more we like Velma, Roxie, and the other “Merry Murderesses” in the Cook County Jail. The more we enjoy the show, the more we prove the show's point! We find decadence entertaining, seductive, and tantalizing. Throughout the show, we laugh at the jokes, we cheer the dance numbers, we join in the ridicule of Amos, the only moral character, and then at the end, the show stops and says - “Do you understand what you've been cheering all night? Murderers!” You - the audience is actually a character in the show. CHICAGO points the finger of blame at us, and some of us may be having too much fun to notice, which again, is the entire point!!"
~Scott Miller
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